Warm waveform (The Chills) (LP 4252)

The Chills  Silver Bullets (Vinyl, Fire Records, 2015) ****  

Genre: NZ Music, alt rock 

Places I remember: Gift from a mate - Chur Kevy

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: I Can't Help You

Gear costume: Pyramid/ When the Poor Can Reach the Moon

They loom large in his legend (The Album Collection playlists): Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5; Part 6; Part 7

Active compensatory factors: The Chills are a world famous in NZ band led by Martin Phillipps, who passed away in 2024. He was the mainstay in the band, the singer and guitarist, and its creative visionary. The rest of the band was ever changing.

Silver Bullets is their fifth studio album. It came out after a 19 year gap after their previous album (Sunburnt). It encapsulates all of The Chills/ Martin Phillipps' strengths - jangly guitars, a sunny disposition (on the surface) combined with a David Byrne style nerviness.

Pitchfork sums the album up well - "guitars wreathed in reverb, organs heaving, Phillipps' voice, as quietly assured as ever. Combining delicate grace with ornate detailing is no easy feat, but on Silver Bullets, Phillipps manages it again and again."

Where do they all belong? This is my only album by The Chills, but it won't be the last.